Caldwell, ID: In a communique received by the North American
Animal Liberation Press Office today, Animal Liberationists have taken
credit for burning a fur store in Caldwell, Idaho early this morning.
According to news reports, firefighters had contained the blaze at the Rocky
Mountain Firework & Fur Company, 14950 Highway 20/26, Caldwell, although
Idaho 30 remained closed, as did Exit 26 off of Interstate 84.

The communique received reads, in its entirety:

"In the early
morning hours of September 26th, a visit was paid to the Rocky Mountain
Firework & Fur Company, a shop that (quite foolishly) sells both highly
flammable and explosive toys, and the chemically-treated skins of thousands
of tortured animals (among some other nasty things, like trapping supplies).
A hole was drilled into their storage space, and several gallons of fuel
were pumped through, as well as multiple other charges being set beneath an
adjoining structure. Ignition devices were set to finish up our work, once
we were safely on our way. By oppressing innocent life, you've lost your
rights. We've come to take you down a notch. Stay in business, and we'll be
back.

Yours truly,The Arson Unit"

Imprisoned in cages for life, fur-bearing animals killed to make products
sold in stores like Rocky Mountain Firework & Fur Company are forced to
endure intensive confinement, compared to the miles of territory these
animals would enjoy in the wild - their natural state. The natural instincts
of these captive animals are completely frustrated; self-mutilation,
sickness, infection, poor sanitation and the sheer stress of confinement
lead animals to premature death. When they survive, animals of sufficient
size are killed by anal electrocution or gassing, then skinned. In addition
to liberating the wild animals destined for a certain, painful and agonizing
death, another goal of liberationists is to cause economic damage to fur
retailers and farms; dozens of stores and fur farming operations have seen
economic ruin since "Operation Bite Back" began by the Animal Liberation
Front in the 1990s.

"The Arson Unit" may refer to a previously
quiescent branch of the Animal Liberation Front (ALF), a clandestine group
of animal liberationists who utilize economic sabotage in addition to the
direct liberation of animals from conditions of abuse and imprisonment. By
making it more expensive to trade in the lives of innocent, sentient beings,
the ALF maintains the atrocities against our brothers and sisters are likely
to occur in smaller numbers; their goal is to abolish the exploitation,
imprisonment, torture and killing of innocent, non-human animals.